More than 100 police officers wearing protective suits spent a second day searching a Tuen Mun landfill yesterday for a newborn girl abandoned shortly after her birth on Wednesday.

The officers from the police tactical unit and Yuen Long district crime squad used spades to sift through garbage at the 1,800 square metre site. Asked about the chances of finding the baby alive, a police officer said: 'Life detectors indicated no signs of life under the garbage.'

He said the search would continue till they found something.

Her 26-year-old mother, an Indonesian domestic helper, delivered the baby in a village house in Ying Lung Wai, Yuen Long. She then wrapped the infant in a towel and stuffed it into a plastic bag.

It is alleged that the mother put the bag into a rubbish bin at a refuse collection centre outside the village with the help of a friend, also an Indonesian maid.

A truck took the garbage to the Nim Wan landfill in Tuen Mun. The two women were being held for questioning and no charge had been laid.